Position in chronology
WF 142
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011100.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(gesz'u@c) si-|NUxU| 2(gesz'u@c) |(TIR&TIR)xU2| ensi2-GAR en zi-u4-di 1(gesz2@c) si-|NUxU| gal-dilmun szubur szu-i sanga-GAR 1(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) si-|NUxU| dumu gal-dilmun GAR-HU-DUR2-BU kinda2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 142. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011100) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011100..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.